Abstract
Resprouting multi-stemmed woody plants form an important component of the woody vegetation in many ecosystems, but a clear methodology for reliable measurement of their size and quick, non-destructive estimation of their woody biomass and carbon stock is lacking. Our goal was to find a minimum number of sprouts, i.e., the most easily obtainable, and sprout parameters that should be measured for accurate sprout biomass and carbon stock estimates. Using data for 5 common temperate woody species, we modelled carbon stock and sprout biomass as a function of an increasing number of sprouts in an interaction with different sprout parameters. The mean basal diameter of only two to five of the thickest sprouts and the basal diameter and DBH of the thickest sprouts per stump proved to be accurate estimators for the total sprout biomass of the individual resprouters and the populations of resprouters, respectively. Carbon stock estimates were strongly correlated with biomass estimates, but relative carbon content varied among species. Our study demonstrated that the size of the resprouters can be easily measured, and their biomass and carbon stock estimated; therefore, resprouters can be simply incorporated into studies of woody vegetation.
Highlights
Resprouting trees and shrubs are often an important component of woody plant vegetation from the temperate zone to the tropics [1, 2,3,4,5,6]
Our study showed that in spite of the structural complexity of multi-sprout woody plants, their biomass and carbon stock can be reliably estimated using the parameters of only one or a few largest sprouts, depending on whether the estimation is for an individual or for a stand
To achieve the best or close to the best possible sprout biomass estimates of an individual resprouter, the basal diameters of the 2 to 5 largest sprouts need to be measured; at the stand level, only the parameters of the largest sprouts are needed for nearly perfect estimates with almost no error
Summary
Resprouting trees and shrubs are often an important component of woody plant vegetation from the temperate zone to the tropics [1, 2,3,4,5,6]. The amount of woody biomass is a key variable for many purposes, such as assessing the woody plant productivity, carbon storage or economic value of wood in forests and plantations, but it is not directly measurable; for this reason, a number of methods for indirect woody biomass estimation have been published [11, 12,13,14,15]. The vast majority of these methods have been developed for “classic” one- or a few-stemmed trees, whereas in spite of the dominance of multi-stemmed resprouters in many ecosystems, the basic methodological steps for accurate sprout biomass and carbon stock estimation, such as which parameters and how many sprouts to measure, are lacking at both the individual and stand levels.
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